Native Spanish speakers worldwide in 2023: an estimate

Map of the world

We estimate that there are approximately 488 million native Spanish speakers (i.e. people who speak Spanish as their first language, or L1) worldwide in 2023. Here's how we came up with this number:

  1. We sourced the population data estimates for each Hispanophone country (i.e. a country in which Spanish is an official language, either de facto or de jure) plus Puerto Rico from the U.S. Census Bureau's U.S. and World Population Clock [1], which is one of the best population estimates available.
  2. To calculate the number of native Spanish speakers in each Hispanophone country, we applied Moreno-Fernandez et al.'s estimates [2] of the percentage of native speakers in each Hispanophone country against its population data. We did the same thing with Puerto Rico.
  3. Lastly, we added Instituto Cervantes' estimate [3] of the number of first-language Spanish speakers in non-Hispanophone countries and territories to the total.

Our estimate differs slightly from other popular ones. Ethnologue's 2019 Languages of the World report [4], which estimated a total of 460 million first-language Spanish speakers worldwide, is outdated. Instituto Cervantes' 2022 report [3], which estimated a total of 496 million first-language Spanish speakers worldwide and also uses Moreno-Fernandez et al.'s estimates of the percentage of native speakers in each Hispanophone country, states that the population data for each Hispanophone country has been 'extracted from the statistical information available in each country', without elaborating. For these reasons, we believe our estimate is more accurate.

Here is the data.

Hispanophone countries, plus Puerto Rico

Argentina
Total population: 46,245,668 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 98.1% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 45,367,000
Bolivia
Total population: 12,054,379 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 83.0% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 10,005,135
Chile
Total population: 18,430,408 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 95.9% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 17,674,761
Colombia
Total population: 49,059,221 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 99.2% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 48,666,747
Costa Rica
Total population: 5,204,411 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 99.3% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 5,167,980
Cuba
Total population: 11,008,112 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 99.8% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 10,986,096
Dominican Republic
Total population: 10,694,700 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 97.6% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 10,438,027
Ecuador
Total population: 17,289,554 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 95.8% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 16,563,393
El Salvador
Total population: 6,568,745 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 99.7% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 6,549,039
Equatorial Guinea
Total population: 1,679,172 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 74.0% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 1,242,587
Guatemala
Total population: 17,703,190 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 78.3% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 13,861,598
Honduras
Total population: 9,459,440 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 98.7% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 9,336,467
Mexico
Total population: 129,150,971 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 96.8% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 125,018,140
Nicaragua
Total population: 6,301,880 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 97.1% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 6,119,125
Panama
Total population: 4,337,768 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 91.9% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 3,986,409
Paraguay
Total population: 7,356,409 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 68.2% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 5,017,071
Peru
Total population: 32,275,736 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 86.6% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 27,950,787
Puerto Rico
Total population: 3,098,423 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 99.0% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 3,067,439
Spain
Total population: 47,163,418 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 91.9% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 43,343,181
Uruguay
Total population: 3,407,213 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 98.4% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 3,352,698
Venezuela
Total population: 29,789,730 [1]
Percentage of native Spanish speakers: 97.3% [2]
Total native Spanish speakers: 28,985,407

Non-Hispanophone countries and territories

Total native Spanish speakers: 45,117,144 [3]

Total

Total native Spanish speakers, worldwide: 487,816,232

References

[1] U.S. and World Population Clock. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
[2] Atlas de la lengua española en el mundo - 3ª ed. ampliada y actualizada. Francisco Moreno-Fernández, Jaime Otero Roth. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
[3] El español: una lengua viva - Informe 2022. Instituto Cervantes. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
[4] Ethnologue: Languages of the World. David M. Eberhard, Gary F. Simons, Charles D. Fennig. Retrieved January 17, 2023.